As an example of a notification device, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-82457 (hereinafter, referred to as patent document) discloses a vehicle meter that alerts a user of the vehicle by using various types of warning sounds. The notification device disclosed in the patent document has a customize mode in which the user of the vehicle can customize various kinds of settings of specifications related to various types of warning sounds.
In the notification device disclosed in the patent document, the user of the vehicle can customize various kinds of settings of specifications related to various types of warning sounds for three items which are the frequency, the priority, and the tone (repeated pitch, monotone or chord, whether echo is applied or not) of the warning sounds. The patent document indicates that the notification device disclosed therein can satisfy requests of a user of the vehicle who has his own hearing characteristic and preference by customizing various kinds of settings of specifications related to various types of warning sounds by the user, thereby improving convenience of the notification device.
However, in the notification device disclosed in the patent document, the user of the vehicle can customize various types of warning sounds by using only the warning sounds that were provided when the notification device was manufactured, and an operation for acquiring warning sounds from the outside is not available. Therefore, if, for example, the user of the vehicle cannot recognize unambiguously the relationship between a warning sound to be notified and a corresponding condition of the vehicle, it is assumed that the user needs to memorize the relationship between the warning sound and the corresponding condition of the vehicle. In addition, in order to fully satisfy diversified preferences of users of vehicles, such as a case where the users of the vehicles desire to use their favorite music as a warning sound for notifying a condition of the vehicle, it is recognized that further improvement is necessary.